Audio 3:04
Qld court scrutinises Govt changes to job agreements

Annie GuestUpdated
Mon 19 Nov 2012, 9:09 PM AEDT

A Queensland court is considering a rare challenge to the state's constitution. Unions have mounted the case against the LNP Government's removal of job security provisions from state laws which they say allow state employees to be sacked with little warning and their jobs contracted out.

Transcript

MARK COLVIN: Queensland's highest court is scrutinising the State Government's controversial changes to the job agreements of tens of thousands of public servants.

Unions have mounted a constitutional argument against the changes. They say they would let state employees be sacked with little warning and their jobs contracted out.

ANNIE GUEST: Well Mark, if I could just take you back a step to when the LNP came to power this year; its public service commissioner moved to strip public sector work job agreements of certain conditions. And when that was challenged by the unions the Government swiftly passed legislation that controversially amended laws to remove employment security and 'no outsourcing' clauses from job agreements.

And today the Australian Workers Union and the public sector union, called the Together Union, challenged it in the Court of Appeal, and their counsel told the three-judge court that the legislation interferes with the doctrine of the separation of powers between the state and judiciary.

MARK COLVIN: How?

ANNIE GUEST: Well it says that the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission has judicial powers. The unions' counsel say that the legislation effectively cancelled certified, existing certified agreements covering workers' rights and conditions, and that's affecting tens of thousands of workers. And of course all comes at a time when the government is cutting 14,000 public sector jobs. And, also, the state's largest enterprise bargaining agreement is being renewed.

MARK COLVIN: So what are Government lawyers saying?

ANNIE GUEST: The Solicitor-General, Walter Sofronoff QC, argued that the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission only certifies awards and gives them rights and liabilities, having regard to the statutes that are created by parliament. Therefore, he argued, it's not an independent judicial body and so the doctrine of the separation of powers hasn't been breached.

He also pointed out that the state has the right to repeal a statute at any time, and in this case it's a statute governing job security and not contracting out work.

MARK COLVIN: Is this likely to be significant just in this case or is it wider significance?

ANNIE GUEST: Well the unions argue that this has also got Federal constitutional issues that it's invoking, although the Government's solicitor rejects that. And it might, of course, raise questions about the point of an award agreement at all if it's able, if an existing agreement is able to be changed as it's already - as it is in place. And, of course, it will be a test of government powers, under Queensland's constitution at the very least.

MARK COLVIN: Any indication, finally, of how long this is likely to go for?

ANNIE GUEST: Well it was a one-day hearing today, concluded late this afternoon. And the Court of Appeal has reserved its decision. We don't know how soon it will hand it down.